SAN FRANCISCO / Judge refuses to toss suit over federal abortion law

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, June 29, 2005

A federal judge has refused to dismiss California's lawsuit against the Bush administration over a federal anti-abortion law that threatens the state with huge financial penalties if it discriminates against health care providers who do not perform abortions or make abortion referrals.

The law was part of a $388 billion spending bill signed by President Bush in December. The suit, filed in January by Attorney General Bill Lockyer and state school Superintendent Jack O'Connell, contends the law would coerce California into ignoring one of its own abortion laws in order to avoid a loss of $49 billion in federal funds.

Supporters of the measure say it will prevent states from punishing health care providers who have moral objections to abortion.

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California, like most states, allows doctors and hospitals to refuse to perform abortions for religious or moral reasons. But a state law requires them to provide abortions, despite their objections, in an emergency in which childbirth would threaten the woman's life or health.

The state's suit argues that the new law -- which contains no express exception for medical emergencies -- would effectively prohibit California from enforcing its emergency-care law against unwilling doctors and hospitals. That, the plaintiffs argue, would violate the state's constitutional authority and a woman's right to an abortion.

The Bush administration sought to dismiss the suit, arguing that it was premature until the federal law is actually enforced against California, but U. S. District Judge Jeffrey White disagreed. White -- Bush's only appointee to the federal bench in San Francisco -- ruled Monday that the alleged conflict between state and federal laws posed "an injury to California's sovereign interest" that entitled the state to proceed with the suit.